PANDUR EVO

The first prototype of the new Pandur EVO 6x6 armored personnel carrier was first demonstrated on June 4, 2018 in Vienna.

On December 22, 2016, the Austrian Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the General Dynamics European Land Systems - Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH worth € 105 million to develop, test and supply 34 new Pandur Evolution (EVO) 6x6 armored vehicles. Pandur EVO is actually a modified 6x6 version of armored personnel carrier Pandur II 8x8.

Previously, Pandur II 8x8 was supplied by GDELS-Steyr to Portugal and the Czech Republic. In 2015, General Dynamics stopped marketing Pandur II and sold the full rights to this vehicle to the Czech company Excalibur Army (part of the Excalibur Group, which later became the Czechoslovak Group). At present, this company assembles Pandur II at a specially created site in Kopřivnice. The Pandur II assembly kit is supplied from GDELS-Steyr in Vienna (Simmering). At the same enterprise, Pandur EVO was started for the Austrian army.

The Pandur EVO prototype should be handed over to the Austrian army for testing in September 2018. Supplies of the remaining 33 Pandur EVO must be in 2019-2020.

Pandur EVO compared to the Pandur I armored personnel carriers (supplied in the second half of the 1990s) with the Austrian army has increased weight, protection and an engine with a power of 455 hp. The Pandur EVO must be equipped with a WS4 Panther remotely controlled weapon station armed with a 12.7-mm M2NV machine gun and a 7.62-mm MG74 machine gun from ESL Advanced Information Technology (ESLAIT) GmbH, the Austrian division of the Israeli company Elbit Systems. For communication on the Pandur EVO, the radio stations CNR-9000 and PNR-500AT of the Israeli company Tadiran will be used.